we're baaack!!

Yup we made it out the other side of Christmas and are back to our peaceful little home in Blackmans bay after a couple of day on the North West coast with family.
We did have a nice time and it wasn't all wasted on sitting around talking and doing nothing we actually got out a bit and I took Allan around to few of my favourite places around the area as I was born and breed there .

The highlight of the trip was our visit to Sheffield where we met a lovely Chap by the name of Matthew Simms.
I have been familiar with Matthew for many years though his handmade chairs that he made completely by hand, no electric tool from my knowledge, I could be wrong though.
He also makes Musical instruments, which he can be seen playing nearly everyday at the highlander Cafe in Sheffield main street.

The day we went in with the kids Matthew was playing a set of pipes that we later found out that he had made them all from scratch.
After Ruby started doing a jig to his music and he came over to say hello, we all got talking and found out that Matthew had also written a couple of books one that had already been published called Mackle Pickle and one of short poems for children, the book he had made as a mock-up was very sweet he had cut some stamps and printed the pages and had hand written the poems.
I couldn't help myself I offered to print his little book for him using the letterpress and add some more illustrations cut out of lino and print them for him.

We then got talking about music and explained that Allan is a composer and they resided that they may be able collaborate on something together, we ended back up in Sheffield the next day over the road in another cafe that has a piano for a little jam session.
It was pretty interesting hearing the pipes and the Piano together, it must have sounded ok because the cafe owner was thrilled and was Happy for Allan to have a concert there on :
Saturday 13th of February, at The Blacksmiths Cafe, Main street Sheffield
If you are in the area you are more than welcome to come along, there isn't a cover charge as far as I know but Allan would love for people to purchase a cd in appreciation.
We are hoping that Matthew will maybe bring along his pipes and join in with a bit of improvisation with Allan.
So all in all we had a lovely time over Christmas,
You just never know when you are going to meet someone very special like Matthew and have such a lovely creative collaboration happen.
Allan and I are very excited about it and can't wait to get back up to Sheffield.